1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for controlling electronic tone generation in accordance with a type of gesture used to contact a performance surface, and more specifically to a percussion-type tone controller which detects various parameters of a gesture used to contact a performance surface, determines a type of gesture used in accordance with the detected parameters, and controls the generation of a tone based on a determined type of gesture. In general, the present invention relates to the control of tone generation in accordance with a detected type of contact of a striking member with a performance surface. The striking member may be anything which can be used to strike the performance surface (e.g., a hand, stick, or brush). For ease of discussion, reference to a hand is made herein.
Certain percussive musical instruments provide widely varying sounds in response to the manner in which they are played. For example, a conga drum is played by contacting the percussive surface of the instrument with a hand. By changing the type of hand gesture used, a player can achieve a wide variety of tones. For example, the player may slap the drum surface with the full surface of his or her open hand (i.e., full hand slap) to produce a loud, dull sound. Alternatively, the player may tap the drum surface with the tip of a finger (i.e., finger tap) to yield a sharp sound of short duration. Additionally, the player may vary an amount of striking force to achieve variation in timbre. Although striking of a drum surface yields a single drum sound (e.g., conga), the same gesture (e.g., full hand slap) has slightly different tone coloration depending on the intensity of the gesture. For example, a hard full hand slap sounds a different tone than a soft full hand slap. Furthermore, the player may selectively hit a particular area of the drum surface in order to achieve a desired sound. For example, a finger tap made at the center of the drum surface yields a sound having more bass than a finger tap made at the edge of the drum surface. Hence, a player can vary any of a type of hand gesture, an amount of striking force, and a drum surface contact location to achieve a performance rich in expression.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Current percussion-type tone generation systems are provided simply with tone controllers having conventional on/off switches or velocity sensors. These tone controllers control tone generation in accordance with on/off switch operations and a detected velocity, respectively. The tone variation afforded by these types of switches or sensors is limited, and hence a player using these tone controllers is not able to produce a performance rich in expression.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho. 61-183695 describes an apparatus having a segmented performance surface, each segment being provided with an on/off switch. The apparatus selects a stored waveform from memory in accordance with an operation of an on/off switch by a player. Thus, by contacting a particular area of the performance surface, that is, by operating a particular switch, a player can designate a type of tone to be generated. However, tone variation is limited simply to the tones corresponding to the stored waveforms. Expressive effects associated with different types of gestures are not possible.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho. 61-183694 describes another apparatus having a segmented performance surface in which each segment is provided with an on/off switch. Two musical waveforms corresponding to musical tones performed at two different points on the performance surface are stored in memory. The apparatus mixes the two waveforms in accordance with the distance between a point at which a player contacts the performance surface (i.e., operates an on/off switch) and the two points, and generates an output musical tone waveform. Tone variation is achieved by changing the point at which the performance surface is contacted, that is, by operating a different on/off switch. Musical tone control in accordance with a recognized type of performance gesture is not possible.